Are you a sci-fi fan who has been looking for some great starship wallpapers for your desktop? Then you will definitely want to look through the “fleet” that we have gathered together for you today.

Note: Click on the picture to see the full-size image—these wallpapers vary in size so you may need to crop, stretch, or place them on a colored background in order to best match them to your screen’s resolution.

These wallpapers not exactly what you were looking for? Not a problem…look through our other wonderful wallpaper collections to find that perfect wallpaper to brighten up your desktop. You can also find more desktop goodness in our new Desktop Fun section.

How-To Geek Wallpaper Collections

• Desktop Fun: Underwater Theme Wallpapers
• Desktop Fun: Winter Theme Wallpapers
• Friday Fun: Retro Nintendo Wallpapers
• Totally Awesome Lego Wallpapers for Your Desktop
• Awesome Desktop Wallpapers: Guitar Edition
• Awesome Desktop Wallpapers: Abstract Art Edition
• Awesome Desktop Wallpapers: Windows 7 Edition
• Fun Wallpapers: The Linux Desktop Edition
• Amazing Desktop Wallpapers: Castle Theme Edition

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If you’re a big fan of one of the application launching dock applications like Rocketdock, you might have little need for the Windows taskbar, and would prefer to just hide it.

Taskbar Eliminator does just that—the second you run the software, your taskbar will be gone. You can use the Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key combination to bring it back, though, and you can set the utility to start with Windows.

Definitely could be useful… just don’t use it if you aren’t willing to use the shortcut key!

Download Taskbar Eliminator [via Life Rocks 2.0]

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Are you looking for a distraction-free writing software that lets you choose the background and sounds? Then you will want to take a look at CreaWriter.

CreaWriter in Action

When you start CreaWriter for the first time you will see this background and hear a “running/trickling water” sound file. Definitely a nice start on a peaceful writing environment.

Here is a closer look at the “Tools Sidebar”. If you hover your mouse over each button you will see a tooltip appear showing what that button does. For those who are curious we also have a list right here for you.

• New – Configuration – Exit
• Save As – Save – Open
• Little Font – Medium Font – Big Font
• Font A – Font B – Font C
• Sound On/Off – Background On/Off – Transparent On/Off

This is the “Configuration Window”. You can enable/disable the effects or choose a new background/sound file (just click inside the blank). When you are finished click “Aceptar”.

Here is our sample document with a custom background, the sound and transparency deactivated, and as much scrollable writing space as we need. Going back and forth between CreaWriter and our other apps was as simple as clicking the “Windows Key”.

Note: Having transparency activated will let background apps, etc. be slightly visible through CreaWriter.

One thing stood out when we went to save our sample document…no file-type extensions displayed in the drop-down list. Being curious we decided to choose three common file-type extensions and see what the results were. We were very pleased to see that we could save our sample document in .txt, .rtf, and .doc formats. So if you go to save a file you will need to manually add the extension to the end…

Our sample document saved as a .txt file…

Then saved as a .rtf file…

And finally saved as a .doc file. Not bad at all…

Conclusion

If you have been wanting a distraction-free writing software that allows you to customize the background and/or sounds, then this is the one that you have been waiting for. For another great distraction-free writing software see our article about WriteMonkey.

Links

Download CreaWriter

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Are you looking for a distraction-free writing software that lets you choose the background and sounds? Then you will want to take a look at CreaWriter.

CreaWriter in Action

When you start CreaWriter for the first time you will see this background and hear a “running/trickling water” sound file. Definitely a nice start on a peaceful writing environment.

Here is a closer look at the “Tools Sidebar”. If you hover your mouse over each button you will see a tooltip appear showing what that button does. For those who are curious we also have a list right here for you.

• New – Configuration – Exit
• Save As – Save – Open
• Little Font – Medium Font – Big Font
• Font A – Font B – Font C
• Sound On/Off – Background On/Off – Transparent On/Off

This is the “Configuration Window”. You can enable/disable the effects or choose a new background/sound file (just click inside the blank). When you are finished click “Aceptar”.

Here is our sample document with a custom background, the sound and transparency deactivated, and as much scrollable writing space as we need. Going back and forth between CreaWriter and our other apps was as simple as clicking the “Windows Key”.

Note: Having transparency activated will let background apps, etc. be slightly visible through CreaWriter.

One thing stood out when we went to save our sample document…no file-type extensions displayed in the drop-down list. Being curious we decided to choose three common file-type extensions and see what the results were. We were very pleased to see that we could save our sample document in .txt, .rtf, and .doc formats. So if you go to save a file you will need to manually add the extension to the end…

Our sample document saved as a .txt file…

Then saved as a .rtf file…

And finally saved as a .doc file. Not bad at all…

Conclusion

If you have been wanting a distraction-free writing software that allows you to customize the background and/or sounds, then this is the one that you have been waiting for. For another great distraction-free writing software see our article about WriteMonkey.

Links

Download CreaWriter

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You don’t need to have a special device to listen to XM Radio, the service is also available online. Today we take a look at setting it up in Windows 7 with Windows Media Center.

Note: At the time of this writing we were able to get XM free for seven days

XM Satellite

To setup XM Radio in Windows Media Center (WMC), from the main menu go to Extras then Extras Gallery.

Next click on XM Radio.

Now click on the free trial button which will open up your default browser so you can sign up for the service. You will need to enter in a user name and email address to sign up, then reply to the confirmation email they send you. There is absolutely no credit card required for the trial which is cool in case you don’t like it.

After you’ve successfully registered with XM, you can come back to WMC and sign in.

Mark Don’t ask me this again then click Send when the security warning appears.

Now you can start listening to your favorite XM radio programming online.

Browsing through different channels and songs seems easier with the keyboard versus the mouse in this case.

?

XM offers sports, talk, wide variety of music, and programming you can’t get elsewhere.

If you enjoy listening to XM Radio programming, this is just another good way to add it to your multimedia setup. If you want to try out XM Radio Online, this is a good opportunity to get a free trial as well. Going through WMC we did get a 7 day trial, but if you look around you can get longer free trial periods. You might want to sign up directly on their site for your free trial first… then go into WMC and set it up. It looks like XM is only available in the US and Canada, but we would love to hear from our friends in other countries to let us know.

Sign up for XM Radio Online

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You don’t need to have a special device to listen to XM Radio, the service is also available online. Today we take a look at setting it up in Windows 7 with Windows Media Center.

Note: At the time of this writing we were able to get XM free for seven days

XM Satellite

To setup XM Radio in Windows Media Center (WMC), from the main menu go to Extras then Extras Gallery.

Next click on XM Radio.

Now click on the free trial button which will open up your default browser so you can sign up for the service. You will need to enter in a user name and email address to sign up, then reply to the confirmation email they send you. There is absolutely no credit card required for the trial which is cool in case you don’t like it.

After you’ve successfully registered with XM, you can come back to WMC and sign in.

Mark Don’t ask me this again then click Send when the security warning appears.

Now you can start listening to your favorite XM radio programming online.

Browsing through different channels and songs seems easier with the keyboard versus the mouse in this case.

?

XM offers sports, talk, wide variety of music, and programming you can’t get elsewhere.

If you enjoy listening to XM Radio programming, this is just another good way to add it to your multimedia setup. If you want to try out XM Radio Online, this is a good opportunity to get a free trial as well. Going through WMC we did get a 7 day trial, but if you look around you can get longer free trial periods. You might want to sign up directly on their site for your free trial first… then go into WMC and set it up. It looks like XM is only available in the US and Canada, but we would love to hear from our friends in other countries to let us know.

Sign up for XM Radio Online

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When your playing music or a video in Windows Media Player in Windows 7, you can toggle the playback controls on or off by hovering the mouse over the window. Here we show you how to always have the playback controls show in Now Playing mode.

In this example I’m playing a song from the band Early Day Miners and we can see the album cover in the Now Playing mode and the playback controls are hidden.

When I hover the mouse pointer over the window the controls pop backup.

To make it so the playback controls are always displayed, switch back to Library view and click Organize then Options.

?

Click on the Player tab then under Player settings uncheck the box next to Allow autohide of playback controls then click Ok.

That’s all there is to it! Now the playback controls will always be displayed when you go to Now Playing mode.

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When your playing music or a video in Windows Media Player in Windows 7, you can toggle the playback controls on or off by hovering the mouse over the window. Here we show you how to always have the playback controls show in Now Playing mode.

In this example I’m playing a song from the band Early Day Miners and we can see the album cover in the Now Playing mode and the playback controls are hidden.

When I hover the mouse pointer over the window the controls pop backup.

To make it so the playback controls are always displayed, switch back to Library view and click Organize then Options.

?

Click on the Player tab then under Player settings uncheck the box next to Allow autohide of playback controls then click Ok.

That’s all there is to it! Now the playback controls will always be displayed when you go to Now Playing mode.

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Another Friday and only a a few more hours until weekend freedom! Instead of staring at the clock and agonizing how time is moving slow, play a fun flash game to pass the hours. Today we take a look at Uphill Rush which is a fun racing game where you can race on different vehicles.

Uphill Rush

It is a basic flash game where at the main screen you can choose the video quality, turn sound on and off, learn how to play…etc.

At first you can select between a a motorcycle, skateboard, or 4 wheeler…monster trucks and special cups are locked until you get high scores with the available ones first.

You can race on the skateboard against the clock or an opponent…score points by completing tricks and jumps.

Cruising along on a 4-wheeler again doing flips and tricks to score points and bonuses along the course.

Here we look at the motorcycles and each vehicle has it’s own feel when racing it. It takes some getting used to… the controls are the arrow keys and space bar.

Playing Uphill Rush on company time should offer a fun challenge. Play with your other “cube mates” and see who can get the highest score. Again, another great way to pass the hours until real freedom begins.

Play Uphill Rush

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Another Friday and only a a few more hours until weekend freedom! Instead of staring at the clock and agonizing how time is moving slow, play a fun flash game to pass the hours. Today we take a look at Uphill Rush which is a fun racing game where you can race on different vehicles.

Uphill Rush

It is a basic flash game where at the main screen you can choose the video quality, turn sound on and off, learn how to play…etc.

At first you can select between a a motorcycle, skateboard, or 4 wheeler…monster trucks and special cups are locked until you get high scores with the available ones first.

You can race on the skateboard against the clock or an opponent…score points by completing tricks and jumps.

Cruising along on a 4-wheeler again doing flips and tricks to score points and bonuses along the course.

Here we look at the motorcycles and each vehicle has it’s own feel when racing it. It takes some getting used to… the controls are the arrow keys and space bar.

Playing Uphill Rush on company time should offer a fun challenge. Play with your other “cube mates” and see who can get the highest score. Again, another great way to pass the hours until real freedom begins.

Play Uphill Rush

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